A call to stop legal action against local government reorganisation will be made this week.
Cumbria County Council is pressing ahead to take the Government to court over plans to abolish all the district authorities and itself and create two councils for the county from 2023.
Despite its initial attempt being thrown out by the High Court – and the county council landed with a £30,000 legal bill – its Labour leadership has agreed to push on to the next stage.
The council has renewed its application for a Judicial Review, requesting permission for its barrister to make verbal representations to the judge.
From 2023, Cumberland Council will govern Carlisle, Allerdale and Copeland. Westmorland and Furness Council will govern Eden, South Lakeland and Barrow-in-Furness
When the full council meets on Thursday at Carlisle Racecourse, the Conservative group will put forward a motion to oppose the legal fight.
Conservative councillor Graham Roberts said: “We as the Conservative Group want it withdrawn because it’s a lot of money to spend on something that won’t happen. The Lib Dems don’t support it, it was the Labour group that put it forward.”
The Liberal Democrats’ half of the ruling coalition abstained on the vote to launch legal proceedings.
Cllr Roberts said: “A Judicial Review would only look at how the process was carried out, it won’t effect the outcome.”
He called the legal proceedings “delaying tactics” from the Labour group.
But leader of the council Stewart Young said: “The budget papers also confirm that the county council is having to pay £9.5 million from our reserves towards a pot of £19 million to be used to draw up plans to abolish the existing seven Cumbrian councils and replace them with two new unitary councils, as required by the Government.
“The other half of this pot is being paid by the district and borough councils. As this work progresses it is becoming more and more apparent that the new model will be more expensive than the existing structure, and the impact on key services and the staff who deliver them will last for years.
“The county council is taking a judicial review to try to persuade the Government to abandon their plans and have a rethink before it is too late.
“The Levelling-Up White Paper published last week shows that just as the Government has confirmed that they will do devolution deals with county councils and their districts and boroughs, we are about to be abolished, and Cumbria risks being left behind as other areas move forward. That is why this judicial review is important, and why we have a duty to pursue it.”
Roger Bingham, president of the Westmorland and Lonsdale Conservative Association, said: “Let’s stick with two new counties. Those who say that a single county would save the people’s money do not instil confidence when they are persisting with legal costs of challenging the two new counties, Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness.”
